I'm just back from the Global Game Jam 2018! It sure was fun. It especially allowed me to work on something else, which is nice. (… I would love to share the incredible VR game that we made, but the thing is… we couldn't make a functional build. Erf.)
But back to our skeleton game. With this week's room:
Dining room
One of the most busy room in the game. Tons of skeletons are having presents here, eating and talking loudly. It's a party, so the music should represent this with some loud swing! More precisely, electro-swing. I took Caravan Palace and Parov Stelar as inspirations. Yes, classics. My main goal was to learn the typical electro-swing rhythm. I went with a fundamental kick + snare alternance, and some brush a guitar to make make it a bit more bouncy.
Although I used entirely "fake acoustic" instruments (sound fonts, but no synth or electronic sounds), the result still sounds electro due to its percussions and its strong bass:
https://vocaroo.com/i/s0kW4GfJSJA4
I must admit, the brass are a mess. It was a tough challenge to find correct sound fonts, and separating them into three separate instruments… Overall, it's a bit of a mess. There may be too much instruments in this. The issue is, separately they sound awful, and its only altogether, hidden among each others, that they give a decent result.
At least, I like the violon touch! But it won't be the main melody: later, there is a trumpet that join the group, taking the lead. It will also be persistent (until the player leave the room). Since it will be associated with the word "skeleton" (yes, hum, it's a very recurring word, seriously), I'm wondering if I shouldn't make this rule: elements associated with skeletons remain. I will read the other rooms, see if I can apply this logic everywhere.
Another little touch: there is a window in the room. Looking at it lead to the description of the outside, a dark and rainy night, on a sinister land. I wanted to transcribe this contrast with the warm and festive inside with this cold outside. I thus applied a bass filter and reverb to the room's music, and added some string and piano:
https://vocaroo.com/i/s1IcFq2sMQxq
There are other places where I use this effect in the game, such as the entrance. It gives the feeling of hearing a room from the outside, and entering it. It's a bit of a hack though: fading a song into a filtered song isn't the same as gradually applying a filter! But… it sounds still ok.
I'd like to share quickly some thoughts about my music and composing. I've been working this week-end with a sound designer, and once again, it was a huge reminder that I'm far from being an actual composer! Maybe not even a good musician. I have a lot of friend and family who are, and some actually work in music, so I guess they had a (good) influence on me. But I'm not sure if I want to become musician. I do music for fun, and it's, hum, bad. I could invest in a sound card, recording material, instruments, learn some more advanced software, other instruments… Maybe I'd like to, but maybe I'm more comfortable in coding. That doesn't mean I'm done with musical game: I have still ideas for procedural music and toying with sound! But that might be what I want to explore: using programmation to create generative sounds and music. This project makes me realize that while I like making music, any musicians will be far better than me! And that's ok.
The conflicting point, about this game specifically, is that it won't have "good" music. It have an interesting system of spatial music, fading instruments across the rooms, which might be fun but won't make a big impression if the music isn't actually great. Sometimes I wonder if the game wouldn't be better without sound: letting the player enjoy the reading without a soundtrack to tell them how to feel. The issue is that this project was conceived as a musical game! Removing this aspect would be a huge downer.
I don't intend to change my plans anytime soon. I have everything prepared, some songs ready, I want to finish that. And it's still for me a great occasion to try stuff in composing! It's just that the music will probably be just okay, while I wanted it to really incarnate the game. Eh, at best it will be a message to sound designers: “I've done this using samples, wanna do a collab for a next game?”. For my next projects anyway, I will go back to more minimalist music, with electronic sounds. That's definitely where I'm comfortable!
But I'm far from being done with this one! It's too soon to write post-mortem, come on! :P
Next room will be one just next to the dining room: the kitchen. Then we'll leave the food to move to the lounge, a more peaceful room.